Friday, August 23, 2013

1.) Today was the last day of camp...WAHOO!!!! I was so over it & I'm so glad that it's done.

2.) I hade my 2nd interview on Tuesday with my district for the Resource Room position, I thought it went okay. The Super asked me pretty basic questions & before hand my current Basic Skills supervisor, who is also our Curriculum Supervisor gave me some advice, he told me to be dynamic, because I'm a better teacher then I interview. I knew that though. It seemed pretty obvious with 5 interviews this year & I got 4 no's.

3.) But finally my hard work went noticed in my own district because

I GOT THE JOB!!!

This year I'll be teaching Resource Room in our 3rd/4th grade building. Not sure yet if it will be for 3rd grade, 4th grade, or both or if it'll be Language Arts, Math, or both. It depends on the numbers.

4.) Now that camp is over, I'm going to go in on Monday & see if I can get into my room. I'm hoping I have my own room, but I'm not really sure. This building is pretty full & the numbers are high. I'll post the before pics after I take them, though it may be a while before I get up any good after pics, because I won't be able to do everything I want until after I get my first big kid paycheck. For now funds are limited & I need to focus on getting binders for OWL binders, composition notebooks, etc. and feel like I've probably missed all the good sales on the things I need. :( On a happy note though Scholastic Express is having their $1 Sale right now.

5.) Did I mention that I GOT THE JOB!!!! So excited I want to scream it from the roof tops. This December will be 6 years since I graduated from college, but this is my dream district, my alma mater, & where I've been working part-time. So happy I get to come on full time!!!! I truly believe this is where I'm meant to be.

Well I guess I should go do something to prepare, considering teachers report the day after Labor Day & the kids come back on the 5th.

Yesterday I finally got one of the calls that I've been waiting for. Back at the beginning of July I interviewed for a full time Resource Room position at my current district's 3rd/4th grade building & yesterday I got the call to come in for a 2nd interview with our Super. I'm so excited, I was on such an adrenaline high yesterday. I'm so close I can taste it.

This hiring season I've gone on 5 interviews, including with my current district, & have gotten 4 rejections, but I believe in my heart that I'm meant to stay in my district & that this job is the job for me. I've felt that since I got the call for the original interview.

Our board meeting is next Wednesday & my interview is Tuesday morning. I'm praying I'll have good news to share with everyone by the end of next week.

I didn't have to go to my summer camp job until 2:30 today so I got to spend the morning with this cutie, who like his mommy, has an oh so fun summer cold, but he was still up for some selfies!

And this was the other thing that made my day yesterday. I got my Blogger Exchange box from sweet Nicole over at Teaching with Style! Here's the post I wrote for the link up.

Since I have a little over 2 weeks before going back to school, when I'm not here, I love to read & have had the reading bug lately. Here's what I've been reading lately. I'm the type of person when I find an author I like I tend to devour all of their books I can find at the library. Yes, I have a Kindle, but I don't like to use it. I prefer to hold a real book in my hands. I know that probably makes me a weirdy, but I can't help it.

Don't forget to stop by my store on Sunday/Monday and take advantage of Tpt's Back2School sale. I'll be setting my store to 20% off plus get an extra 10% off by using the code BTS13 at checkout.

If it's still summer for you, I hope you're enjoying your last days or weeks. And if you're already back-to-school I hope it's going well.

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Ahhh, so excited!!! I received my Blogger Exchange package today from the wonderful Nicole over at Teaching With Style!

Dun-Dun-Dun...Here it is!!!

And here's the contents....LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

Ink Joy pens...I'm a pen snob, so Nicole hit it out of the park with these, I love Ink Joy pens & these are no exception.

Here they are in action :)

Fun Post-Its. These are definitely for me, not the kiddos. :) I love the fun shape.

Ok, I honestly don't think I will ever eat these or let anyone in my house eat them, for the simple fact that they're from HAWAII & I want to go there so bad. So for the time being basking in their presence will have to suffice. That's weird isn't it?

I admit I dug into the contents before reading the card & when I pulled these little gem out I had no idea what it was but I LOVED IT! The fact that it had my name on it sent me over the moon.

Then I read the card & discovered that it's a coffee cozy, so here it is modeling on a thermal mug I had in the cabinet. So in love with this.

I'm so happy I participated in this exchange, it was so much fun & I just love sending gifts to people & it's always fun to receive them too.

Thanks so much Nicole for all of the wonderful goodies. Be sure to hop over to Teaching With Style! and check Nicole's blog out.

It's my BIRTHDAY today! And in honor of that I'm throwing a sale in my Tpt store. Everything is 20% off until Monday. Stop by today & get it while it's hotttt!!!

My shoes came for my cousins wedding. She wanted silver & I didn't have any silver dress shoes, so ordered these from Famous Footwear. They were the only ones that had a 10.5 with a kitten heal & were cute. Gotta love the after-effects of having a baby... making your feet bigger, by just a 1/2 size, but stores don't carry 10.5, so now I must become an online shoe shopper.

I'm really loving these shoes!!!

I found this scrapbook paper pack at Wal-Mart & I thought it would be just perfect to make the front covers for my teacher's toolbox.

Speaking of Teacher's Toolbox, I'm not quite sure which one I want.

My OCD says that I should err on the side of caution & go with the largest one possible, but I'm not really sure ?!?

Which one do you suggest?

22 Drawers

26 Drawers

39 Drawers

44 Drawers

Well I guess I'll give you a little update on my trying to obtain a full time teaching position saga.

I had interview #5 for a permanent substitute position; however, I didn't get that. So right now I've had 5 interviews this season & 4 no's. I'm still waiting to hear back from my current district about the 3rd/4th grade Resource Room position. They have reposted the position since it's now considered a new position because they had to get the Business Office to approve adding another teacher. They stop accepting applications on Monday, but I don't have to resubmit anything & according to the Supervisor of Special Services I'm still being considered for the position. I feel in my heart of hearts that I'm meant to stay in my current district & that this is the position for me. Fingers crossed & prayers said that I hear some good news soon.

Have you joined my Back-to-School linky yet? Check it out here. Let's break the ice & get to know each other more.

So excited this linky is back. Much thanks to Kacie from Doodle Bugs for hosting it & I hope her month off was full of rest & relaxation.

Monday, August 5, 2013

First, a question! I got one of these for Christmas last year. Do you have one? How do you use it in your classroom? Do you store centers in it? Student organization? Teacher organization?

I knew I had to have one when I saw it, but I'm still trying to decide how to utilize it.

Have you linked up with me for my B2S Mixer Linky yet? Come over & tell us some random things about you & let's get to know each other better.

Finally, I'm linking up with my sweet bloggy friend Christine from Preslar's Place for her Back to School Linky

I'm mentioning a little number sort that I just created. Right now it's basic, I wanted to get it out there for those of you that are already going back to school (I fortunately have until Labor Day to get it completely ready for my kiddos). As it is right now would be great for Pre-K (later in the year) & Kinder, but once I create the update for it (soon), it will be useful for 1st grade & 2nd as well.

Right now it includes the cards below for numbers 1-20. Students simply sort all the different ways 1 is depicted, 2, 3, and so forth up to 20. I will update the pack to include addition representation to 20 as well. If you purchase/download this pack you will get the update for free.

Ah....did you catch that I said "download!" Yes I am having a flash freebie with this product, it is free in my store until I go to bed tonight.I decided to leave it free until I get up in the morning, since it's only about early evening on the West Coast right now & here on the East Coast it's 11pm. So it'll stay free until tomorrow (tuesday) morning. Hurry over & scoop yours up. Remember to leave some positive feedback. Flash freebie is over. Thank you to everyone who downloaded it & love some great feedback. Watch for the update, I hope to be working on it this week. For those of you who missed it, it is now for sale in my store.

Have you linked up with Christine yet to display your back-to-school items? Or have you headed over to her blog & checked out what others are offering?

Saturday, August 3, 2013

Hey there everyone, hope you're having a great weekend. For those of you who have gone back to school or are getting ready to go back this week, I hope you have an awesome year & for those of you like me who don't go back until after Labor Day, I hope you're enjoying the rest of your summer.

First up...yesterday we took our little guy to this park that's about 40 minutes away from our house, it's the coolest park ever. The park is actually called the Imagination Station. It has the biggest climber I've ever seen plus 3 smaller climbers, swings, & other activities. I tried to get a picture of it, but it's just too big for the iPhone to get all of it. The top pic was my best shot & the bottom pic is my little guy in a car on a spring. This giant climber & he just wanted to rock back & forth in the fire car. Oh this kid!

Monday we went to the Outlet stores in Atlantic City so I could finally get my Coach crossover. Working a summer camp with field trips, a crossover is necessary. I know a Coach might not have been necessary, but my sister has one that is similar & it was a reasonable price & I liked the size of it. I didn't want one that was huge. I love it. Here it is doing it's thing on our camp field trip to the movies {we were seeing Smurf's 2}.

My trip to Walmart this week. I needed to get stuff for someone else & ended up getting some stuff for me. I swear the only thing pictured in this cart that is mine are the dry-erase pockets. Walmart had them for $1.97, not as good as Target having them in the Dollar Spot, but none of my Targets had them & I really wanted them, so I figured $2 was better then if I got them from a school supply place. And of course my OCD made me get 2 in each color for a total of 8.

Last Saturday my little guy & I tagged along with my dad & step-mom to take the dogs to the beach. It was an impromptu trip on our part, we stopped by for a visit & they asked if we wanted to go, which is why my little one is only in his diaper instead of a bathing suit. But he had fun watching all the dogs (we were at a dog beach), playing, & being with Nan & Grandpa.

P.S the Great Danes aren't ours but they came to the dog beach & I love Great Danes & my hubby grew up with them, so of course I had to snap a few pics.

Today these 2 handsome boys came for their yearly, week long visit while their mom is at the beach for the week. Bailey is 5 (going on 6) & is from our first litter. Benny just turned 1 & is from the last litter we had & he's a spitting image of his mother & has her personality too. I told you we are crazy about our dogs & have stayed close with the majority of them. So close that when their parents go on vacation they come to my Dad & stepmom to stay instead of a kennel for the week. Love these boys!!!

And have you checked out my Back-to-School Mixer Linky Party? Link up with me & share some random stuff about yourself that we wouldn't know from reading your blog. I love getting to know everyone! Hope to see you there!